Editor's note: In recent years, with the continuous promotion of the comprehensive deepening of transportation reform and the emergence of new logistics and transportation modes such as network freight transportation, the work of cost reduction and efficiency increase of transportation and logistics has achieved positive results. However, the small scale of logistics and transportation industry, large quantity, mismatch between supply and demand of vehicles and goods, insufficient industry concentration have not been fundamentally solved, and logistics and transportation enterprises are still faced with pain points such as high transportation costs and weak profitability. Due to the weak awareness of compliance, some network freight platforms and transportation enterprises have implemented issuing false invoices, tax evasion and other tax-related illegal and criminal behaviors in order to capture profits and reduce operating costs. Tax risks are increasingly prominent, and the construction of tax compliance is urgent. Recently, lawyers Liu Tianyong and Jiang Zhenghe from Hwuason Tax Law Firm expressed their opinions on the four types of tax-related risks in the logistics industry, and put forward suggestions on the tax compliance construction of logistics and transportation enterprises. Related content is published in China Tax News. The full text is contained as follows:

 Logistics enterprises: pay attention to the prevention and control of four types of tax risks

According to the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, the total amount of social logistics in 2023 was 352.4 trillion yuan, up 5.2% at comparable prices. The total revenue of the logistics industry was 13.2 trillion yuan, up 3.9% year on year, and the scale of the logistics revenue continued to expand. The development of the logistics industry is stable and good, and the quality and efficiency are improved, but there are also some tax-related problems worthy of attention. Beijing Hwuason tax law firm issued "The logistics and transportation industry tax compliance report (2024) "(hereinafter referred to as the "report "), from the state administration of taxation and the tax authorities since 2023 logistics false case information, logistics and transportation industry tax risk mainly includes: oil invoices become transport invoices, false toll invoice, network freight platform falsely issuing invoice, not confirmed sales revenue and so on four types of typical tax risk.

 Common risk point 1: Oil invoices are "converted" into transport invoices

According to the joint investigation of the the tax bureau and the police department, a gang set up 4 transportation enterprises and falsely issue special VAT invoices for liquefied gas and tire industry for themselves and special VAT invoices for transportation industry for others without real transactions. The invoice value and tax involved in the whole chain totaled 670 million yuan.

 According to the "report", the false behavior of "Oil invoices are converted into shipping invoices" in transportation enterprises is usually closely related to the phenomenon of "False invoices for refined oil product". Because there are many individual consumers in the downstream of petrochemical enterprises, some consumers do not take the initiative to ask for invoices, so petrochemical enterprises have "surplus invoices", they falsely issue to the transportation enterprises. After paying the invoice fee, transportation enterprises obtain special VAT invoices such as "refined oil" and "liquefied gas", and then issue transportation invoices to the downstream. In some cases, transportation enterprises will obtain "non-refined oil invoice" named "raw oil" and "heavy oil", and non-refined oil products cannot be directly used in transportation vehicles. However, the transportation enterprises do not sell non-refined oil products abroad, nor entrust the processing of related oil products, and directly issue transportation invoices to the downstream, and the false risk is very high.

 Liu Tianyong, director of Beijing Hwuason Law Firm, analyzed that one of the reasons for the high incidence of false issuing behavior of transportation enterprises is that it is difficult for transportation enterprises to obtain the special VAT invoices, and the input deduction is insufficient. In fact, eligible refined oil invoices can be deducted. The state administration of taxation on cross-border tax exemption for the record VAT announcement (the state administration of taxation announcement 30,2017, hereinafter referred to as NO. 30 announcement) clear, taxpayers to purchase and to the actual carrier use refined oil products and pay road, bridge, gate tolls, actually used to complete transportation services, and the VAT deduction certificate in accordance with the current provisions, the input tax granted from the output tax deduction.

Qiu Lu, chief of the goods and services tax section of the Neijiang Tax Bureau of the State Administration of Taxation, said that the NO.30 announcement filled the gap in the deduction policy of oil costs and tolls actually used by enterprises without transport vehicles, but also gave some criminals an opportunity. In this regard, the enterprises without transport vehicles should strictly abide by the bottom line of the law, take the operation subject of transport business and the actual delivery subject of oil products as the key points of internal control, strengthen the standardized operation of business, capital, physical objects and other links, establish a multi-point linkage internal control management mechanism, and effectively prevent the risk of false issuing.

 Common risk point 2: obtain the false toll invoice

 According to the inspection bureau, a gang, in the absence of a logistics company, was suspected of asking the "black intermediary" to falsely issue 660,000 electronic invoices for ETC tolls for itself, with a total amount of 516 million yuan. At present, the case is under further investigation.

 According to the "report", behind the false issuing of ETC toll invoices is an interest chain involving transportation enterprises, "black intermediaries", individual drivers and other subjects. In the daily operation, the transportation enterprises are faced with the problem of insufficient VAT input deduction and account entry cost deduction. Criminals seize this demand, collect a large number of driver information to falsely issue ETC toll electronic invoices, provide false deduction vouchers for transportation companies, and assist enterprises to evade corporate income tax, value-added tax, additional taxes, etc."Black intermediary" is responsible for contacting transportation enterprises, and from the collection of billing tax points. At the same time, in order to obtain extra income, some individual drivers sell their own ETC toll electronic invoices or personal information to criminals to help them to make false activities.

Xu Zhixiong, head of the goods and labor tax department of the Baiyun District Tax bureau in Guangzhou, suggested that transportation enterprises should improve the internal voucher management system. On the one hand, select reliable trading subject, and strengthen the training and guidance for individual drivers to issue special VAT invoices accurately; on the other hand, establish and improve the risk identification system of abnormal enterprise issuing and receiving behavior, focusing on the occurrence of ETC accounts, frequent binding and binding, and the mismatch between the number of toll invoices. In addition, the enterprise must also take the business authenticity as the principle, retain the complete transaction data for future reference.

 Common risk point 3: network freight platform issued false invoice

 Company A is an online freight platform enterprise, which was investigated for suspicion of falsely issuing special VAT invoices. According to the first-instance judgment, the company issued 18,323 special VAT invoices to more than 2,700 enterprises, totaling 9.198 billion yuan, and received 335 million yuan in financial rebates from local government departments. A total of 18 defendants, including actual controllers, technical salesmen, finance and agents, were sentenced to three to 15 years in prison for the crime of falsely issuing special VAT invoices, and fined a total of more than 2.2 million yuan.

 It is understood that A company using independent research and development of network freight cargo matching system, increased the waybill collection function, enroll agents, development, to logistics, construction engineering companies to promote special VAT invoice, then the invoice enterprises have entrusted social vehicle transport real business information or fake freight information, through collection waybill, fill contract methods such as network freight business. Finally, the platform will transfer the received freight to the account designated by the receiving enterprise to complete the return of funds. In this way, the receiving enterprise obtained the VAT special invoice to deduct the input tax, and Company A charged the billing fee, and at the same time obtained the government financial refund.

 The network freight platform issues special VAT invoices in its own name, which also faces problems such as insufficient VAT input deduction and lack of enterprise income tax cost deduction vouchers. In order to encourage the development of the logistics and transportation industry, some local governments have introduced relevant policies on the return of enterprise income tax and value-added tax. For example, 90% of the local retained 50% value-added tax and 40% corporate income tax will be returned to enterprises in the form of financial awards and subsidies. On the basis of no real transaction, Company A made out false invoices, which caused the loss of national tax revenue and seriously damaged the order of national tax collection and administration.

Jiang Zhenghe, a partner of Beijing Hwuason Law Firm, analyzed that the network freight platform, as an emerging model relying on Internet technology, has an imperfect business process and a high tax risk. For example, the waybills retained by the network freight platform are not compliant, or even have no track to check, which is prone to the risk of "supplementary payment" invoices for the completed business. Due to the lack of payment technology, some enterprises fail to settle the payment in real time, resulting in the risk of capital return. In this regard, Jiang Zhenghe suggested that the network freight platform enterprises should strictly examine the information provided by the shipper and the carrier. If the enterprise has deposit return and advance freight, in order to avoid the risk of capital return, the relevant transaction information should be retained, so that it can be used as the basis to explain its rationality. Conditional network freight platform should establish and improve the enterprise tax compliance management department, or hire professional tax personnel to regularly investigate the tax-related risks of enterprises.

 Common risk point 4: Failure to recognize sales revenue as required

 During the transport business, B Logistics Company hired external vehicles to carry them due to insufficient transport capacity. In order to reduce operating costs, Company B purchased gasoline and diesel oil and obtained invoices, and the relevant costs have been listed. Company B will deliver the above gasoline and diesel oil to the outsourced fleet to offset part of the freight rate. The tax authorities believed that company B's purchase of gasoline and diesel to the outsourcing fleet to offset the freight, and the failure to withdraw output tax constituted tax evasion, and required the company to make up the tax and late fee.

"Report" analysis, oil card offset freight is common in the logistics industry. Transportation enterprises can buy a large number of oil cards at the discount price, and replace the freight that should be paid to individual drivers with oil cards, which can reduce the expenditure of cash flow and reduce operating costs. At the same time, transportation enterprises can also obtain special VAT invoices for refined oil products, and conduct VAT input deduction and pre-tax deduction of enterprise income tax.

"It seems reasonable, but the tax treatment is very complicated."Liu Tianyong analysis, according to the NO. 30 announcement, the taxpayer as the carrier and the shipper transportation service contract, charge freight and bear the carrier responsibility, and then entrust the actual carrier to complete all or part of the transportation service, purchasing and use to the actual carrier, used for the actual carrier is entrusted transportation services of refined oil, the input tax granted from the output tax deduction. However, if the transportation enterprise does not provide the oil card to the actual carrier according to the actual consumption of the transportation business, but provides more oil card to offset part of the freight, the part of the freight does not belong to the situation stipulated in No.30 Announcement. In practice, the transportation enterprises offset the transportation cost with the purchased oil card, which may cause the risk of tax evasion.

Dong Ying, chief of the tax bureau of Juye County, suggested that transportation enterprises should adhere to the "substantive principle" in the tax treatment, and if the oil card can offset the freight, they should confirm the sales revenue in time according to the regulations. Enterprises should strengthen the real-time monitoring and dynamic management of transportation and transaction processes, so as to avoid problems such as ious payment, non-compliance of invoice supply, private account collection, and not uploading relevant materials in accordance with regulations. At the same time, if the upstream enterprise is qualitatively false, the receiving enterprise should take the initiative to contact the tax department, provide the contract signed with the counterparty, bank statement records, goods pound list and other relevant materials, to fully prove the authenticity of the transaction, so as to strive to be identified as good faith to reduce the impact on the enterprise operation.